Electrical transmission or interconnection systems – Vehicle mounted systems – Automobile
Reexamination Certificate
2001-11-20
2003-06-10
Fleming, Fritz (Department: 2836)
Electrical transmission or interconnection systems
Vehicle mounted systems
Automobile
C307S147000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06577025
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The invention relates to an electrical wiring system for the drive unit in vehicles, which will be referred to in the following merely as wiring. The wiring is, in particular, destined for the drive unit, i.e. in particular for the internal combustion engine and transmission of a motor vehicle. It may, however, also be used for motorcycle engines, boat engines or aircraft engines.
STATE OF THE ART
Hitherto, a wiring harness has been provided in the engine compartment of a motor vehicle, which connects the functional units of the internal combustion engine and other electrical functional units within the engine compartment with each other and with the rest of the vehicle as far as the electrical power supply and the exchange of data and signals is concerned. Such functional units are, in particular, sensors, such as knock or oil level sensors, and actuators, such as injection and ignition means. Apart from electrical wires, wiring harnesses may, in particular, also include optical wires, for example optical waveguides.
Traditional wiring looms, such as shown for example in DE 3824857 and the DE 3903818, have a tree-like structure with a great variety of branches and ramifications. The production of such a wiring loom requires a large number of manual processes. Another problem is that, due to the drastically increasing number of functional units and functional contents of engines and transmissions, the wiring looms contain more and more wires and thus increase in weight and volume. Thus, the technical designers face increasing difficulties when accommodating the wiring loom in the engine compartment.
Furthermore, today, so-called electronic boxes (E-boxes) are rigidly mounted to the car body in the engine compartment and connected to the wiring loom. Such E-boxes, such as disclosed for example in WO 96/00156 and in DE 19511755, contain an increasing number of electronic control devices for the engine and its units as well as relay components. The control devices have their own casings which, in part, contain passive cooling elements. The control devices and the relays are placed within a voluminous plastic casing of the E-box with the control devices and relays connected individually via plug-type connections and plug bases directly to the wiring loom. The result is, on the one hand, that the E-box is of a considerable size, which in turn, triggers positioning problems, and on the other hand it is time-consuming to assemble due to the manual assembly of the numerous plug-in connections between the wiring loom and the E-box.
EP 0 674 100 A1 describes a system for the operation and control of sensors, apparatus and functional units of a vehicle with the electronic control device
4
being mounted at or within an air intake of an internal combustion engine. The electronic control device
4
comprises three connectors
5
A,
5
B,
5
C, which are connected to the corresponding counter connectors
6
A,
6
B,
6
C. These counter connectors, in turn, are connected to the corresponding bundles of electric cables
7
A,
7
B,
7
C. The first bundle
7
A is responsible for the electrical connection to the sensors, apparatus and activators in the vehicle body. The second bundle
7
B is responsible for the electrical connection to the sensors, apparatus and activators in the engine. Finally the third bundle
7
C is responsible for the electrical connections to the sensors, apparatus and activators in the air intake
3
.
Furthermore, EP 0 857 618 A2 describes a motor control device 17 which is mounted on the engine block in a section 12D of the engine 12. Furthermore, the motor control device 17 has a circuit plate 17D with a CPU. The motor control device 17 is mounted on the engine and connected to switches and functional units by means of a traditional wiring loom (cf. column 3, lines 50 to 58).
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The invention is based on the technical problem of creating an electrical wiring system for the drive unit in a vehicle in which the issue of accommodating the wiring is improved, whilst at the same time simplifying the manufacture and installation of the wiring.
This technical problem is, according to the invention, solved by an electrical wiring system with the features of point-to-point connections. The related circuits of the first and second electrical connections are made within the central distribution unit. This central distribution unit is mounted on the drive unit and comprises a control platform with at least one electronic control module.
Thanks to this wiring concept with a central circuit and electrical point-to-point connections, there are no electrical branches as in the case of the traditional wiring harness. Thus, the cable end connectors, which until now had to be produced at considerable manual effort on the wiring harness, are no longer required. In this respect, it was, for example, necessary to join certain bared cable ends manually to form a circuit, to solder them to each other (or to weld or to crimp them) and to fit them with a protective cap. In the case of the wiring that is object of the invention, connector cables are now used that can be standardized in terms of number of pins, length, conductor cross section, etc. In this respect, several electrical point-to-point connections can be spatially combined, at least in part, for example in the form of a foil wire with several electrical strip conductors that are arranged in parallel. Such individual strip conductors may, if necessary, naturally be branched off geometrically from the foil wire i.e. the foil wire may—for example, by careful opening or unravelling of its foil connections between the electrical strip conductors—be gradually divided into individual strip conductors so that they can be brought to the corresponding connecting points.
According to the invention, electrically non-branching point-to-point connections are provided, i.e. individual strip conductors or conductors, for example copper conductors, which do not have any electrical branches or taps. A geometrical, i.e. spatial branching or sub-division of the bundles of wires, foil wires etc. is naturally possible according to the invention, if the individual electrical conductors or strip conductors only form point-to-point connections.
Such standardized interconnections can be produced in an automated process, since the interconnections themselves no longer contain circuits. This results in corresponding production advantages, and manual production effort can be minimized in the wiring that is the object of the invention.
Also, mounting the central distribution unit on the drive unit directly in accordance with the invention and integrating the electronic control modules within the central distribution unit can considerably reduce the extent of the wiring and save wire length. The electronic control modules that correspond in functional terms to the control devices that have been customary up to the present, may now, according to the invention, be integrated without an individual casing directly on the control platform. For this purpose, the control platform is configured preferably as a fixed or flexible circuit board or FPC (flexible printed circuit) plate. It may, however, also be configured as a fixed or flexible circuit component in other suitable techniques that are known to the skilled person, for example as a printed or etched circuit board or using MID (moulded interconnect device) technology. The control platform also preferably includes the contact points and interfaces to the interconnections.
Thus, the traditional E-boxes with their numerous interfaces and slots and their considerable physical size can, according to the invention, be dispensed with. Instead, the traditional control devices with their casings can be replaced by electronic control modules that are directly installed on the control platform. The circuit of the electrical connections is linked with the electronic control systems and also made on the control platform. Thus, also numerous bulky and expensive plug-in and cable connectio
Eckstein Fred
Gröbmair Max
Hentschel Andreas
Hentschel Gabriele
Kasprzok Manfred
Berkowitz Marvin C.
Fleming Fritz
Hentschel Gabriele
Lisa Draxlmaier GmbH
Nath Gary M.
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